Syria 'Tried To Fuel Holy War In Iraq Against US An Britain'

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 1-11-2006 | Francis Harris

[blam]

Syria 'tried to fuel holy war in Iraq against US and Britain'

By Francis Harris in Washington
(Filed: 11/01/2006)

President Bashar al-Assad of Syria secretly incited Iraq's top Shia leader to declare holy war against US and British forces, according to Washington's former administrator in the country.

In his new book, My Year in Iraq, Paul Bremer said he heard the explosive intelligence in October 2003 as sectarian tensions soared across the country following the fall of Saddam Hussein.

News of Assad's actions ‘stunned’ the US administration in Iraq

The report came from an extremely senior source, the supreme leader of Iraq's majority Shia community, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

According to Mr Bremer, the news was passed to him by Mowaffak al-Rubaie, a senior Shia politician involved in negotiations with the ayatollah. The Syrian leader had apparently recalled the Shia-led uprising against the British in 1920 and urged the Shia to repeat history.

The news "stunned" the US administration in Iraq. "This was an act of extraordinary irresponsibility from Syria's president," Mr Bremer writes. "We had good intelligence showing that many insurgents and terrorists were coming into Iraq through Syria."

But the allegation was far more serious, he says. "This message from Assad essentially incited Shia rebellion. If he were to succeed, the coalition would face an extremely bloody two-front uprising, costing thousands of lives."

The revelation that Syria's leader was trying to stoke unrest inside Iraq goes some way to explaining Washington's unrelenting hostility towards the Damascus regime ever since.

In Europe Mr Assad has been portrayed as a leader motivated by the desire to stand up to Israel and stay in power. But in Washington he has long been seen as a far more dangerous figure.

Although the Americans have continually complained about interference in Iraq by Syria and Iran, Mr Bremer's book suggests that its most serious problems were internal.

In particular, he claims to have stressed to Washington the need to confront the firebrand Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Some British officials voiced their doubts over the policy, fearing it would spark a wider Shia revolt and some expressed irritation over Mr Bremer's account, suggesting it offered a partial view.

That crisis erupted in April 2004 when Sadr's militiamen rose up as the US attempted to take the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.

With pundits suggesting the country was in meltdown, Mr Bremer and his aides prompted sometimes unwilling coalition commanders to take firm action.

Mr Bremer directs withering criticism at Italian, Spanish, Polish and Bulgarian units, collectively described as "useless". Iraqi units were "ineffective, or worse".

But the gravest allegations are levelled at the Ukrainian soldiers sent by David Richmond, Britain's ambassador in Iraq, to rescue coalition staff besieged in Kut.

The unit entered the town but then withdrew in such haste that five British military contractors were left behind among armies of militiamen. Four escaped but one was killed.

Mr Bremer writes: "I found myself pacing my office, speechless with rage at the Ukrainians."

[SevenMinusOne]

Mr Bremer directs withering criticism at Italian, Spanish, Polish and Bulgarian units, collectively described as "useless".

Take out the shooters in the Poland's GROM Unit and Bremer has it about exactly right!

Many (most) of the coalition forces wanted no part of actual fighting -

[allen08gop]

as usual, why should they? We were there to do the dirty work, just like Americans always do. Leadership can suck sometimes. We have to clean up after the Fu**-ups do their damned best to make things worse or not do anything at all. Witness the UN after the Tsunami disaster.

I think it's still live and if so, check out the Diplomad's site and his take on the disaster. He nailed it.

http://diplomadic.blogspot.com/

Check out January's archives.

Basically, the world knows we'll take care of it so they do nothing or very little.

I remind the jerks that badmouth the USA all the time with that one.

[Just mythoughts]

I think we got some internal issues ourselves, after all, the highly self esteemed Senator from W.VA., Rockefeller told us himself, he went by himself and advised that leader in Damascus way back in Jan 2002.